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UPDATE: The Buffalo News has posted video. They do not permit you to embed for some reason. This is unfortunate, as the videos have Buffalo News branding all over them and would be graphical advertisements for the paper and its website. It would be embedded right here, as a matter of fact. Oh, well.

While all week the media wrung its hands over whether to notify the public that the most hateful monsters from the Phelps family were planning on descending on Western New York, people organized to counterprotest.

Sure, Phelps and his band of imbeciles crave attention, but regular folks, when threatened with Phelps’ brand of hate speech, have a right no know they’re coming, and to appropriately react.

Phelps’ group had a grand total of three idiots holding signs about God hating someone. Fail.

[Phelps’] demonstration was intended to coincide with what the hate group thought would be a community prayer service for victims of the crash being held at Zion Lutheran Church, just two blocks from where the protesters gathered. However, church officials said they were holding normal Sunday services.

“Hatred in the name of Jesus is a despicable thing,” said Zion Lutheran Pastor Randy Milleville.

The counterprotests took many forms, and included individuals from across Western New York, as well as groups including Vietnam Veterans Legacy Club and OUTspoken For Equality, an area gay rights advocacy group.

Joe and Marilyn Ruszala of Hamburg held homemade signs along the side of Clarence Center Road.

“I’m not standing for this in my neck of the woods,” Marilyn Ruszala said. “This doesn’t belong anywhere, and if no one stands up they’ll get away with it.”

Her husband added, “Something just enrages you to the point where you’ve got to do something. You just couldn’t sit home and do nothing.”

Autumn Fiscus, 16, a member of Zion Lutheran, painted a sign with acrylic paints and candle wax. On the opposite side of the sign, she painted Bible verses she said contradicted the Westboro protesters’ anti-homosexual beliefs.

I am proud to be a resident of Clarence. I am proud to be a resident of Western New York. I am proud to call myself a Buffalonian. I am proud that my community came out in such huge numbers to show Phelps’ hateful bastards that neither they nor their message is welcome here.

I will admit that it was a great display. However, the problem still remains that only 3 people from that group showed and they received a cover story in the local section of the Buffalo News. Sure, it’s not a flattering story, but to these people there’s no such thing as bad press. They got mentioned on the front of that section. That’s the only way they’re going to see it. For them, it was very successful. It’s much more media exposure than that group should ever get. There would have been no story if it were just 3 people. An additional 150 people made the media take notice.